Albany Academy tops Spa Catholic, advances to Sectional Final

GLOVERSVILLE — Albany Academy’s pitching effort carried their way to victory over Spa Catholic 4-1 Wednesday night in Gloversville in the Class B Sectional semifinals . Only allowing three hits in the contest the Cadets pitching staff looked dominant the whole way, especially starter Ethan Duda. Duda went five innings giving up three hits, one run and striking out nine Spa Catholic hitters.

“As a team, I don’t think we’ve ever been better. We had a lot of momentum coming into this game and it feels great to be going back to the Sectional Finals,” Duda said.

Spa Catholic struggled all night offensively only having 1 hit from the top of the 1st inning to the top of 5th, a double by Nick Winslow.

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Dylan Custer got the start for the Saints. He ran into trouble in the second inning after E.J Birch led off the inning with a single, and then later in the inning, Duda helped himself with an RBI double and then advanced to 3rd on a throwing error. The next batter Derek Bender sacrificed him home on a bunt and then Ben Mason reached on an error and was brought home by a Berkely Thompson RBI single to make the score 3-0 in the Cadets favor. In the 3rd inning, Ben Seiler hit a Sac Fly to bring home Brett Young and to make the score 4-0 Academy.

In the top of the 5th inning Spa Catholic got their offense moving starting with a Caden Awad single to lead off the inning and then a Custer RBI single to make the score now 4-1.

Parker Bolt pitched two innings in relief and looked phenomenal, allowing no hits or walks and striking out four batters.

Custer pitched a complete game in the loss allowing seven hits, four runs (two earned) and striking out three hitters.

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Spa Catholic coach Phonsey Lambert had to say, “We came here to win, and they just made more plays then we did. Dylan Custer pitched a great game and hats off to them.”

Rider said about the upcoming Sectional Final Saturday versus Ichabod Crane “We’ve got Seiler pitching so when he’s on the mound we’re pretty confident but it should be a great game considering we split during the regular season and both teams and very evenly matched.”

Spa Catholic finishes their season with a record of 20-3 for the second year in a row.

Albany Academy improves their record to 21-2 with the losses coming from Perry County Central (Kentucky) and as previously mentioned Ichabod Crane who they face Saturday at Joe Bruno Stadium at 7 p.m.